Brian Keene's Blog, page 144
March 20, 2013
SHADES
SHADES, a collaborative novel I wrote with Geoff Cooper, which can best be described as “Harry Potter with a big set of brass balls”, has been in print for some years. But now the Kindle, Nook, and Kobo editions are getting a new face, courtesy of Kealan Patrick Burke (who also recently designed the new cover for the Kindle, Nook, and Kobo editions of KILL WHITEY).
SHADES was previously only available as a signed, limited edition hardcover from Cemetery Dance. Set in Coop’s fictional town of Brackard’s Point, it unveils some magical secrets of my own Labyrinth mythos. You should read it, if you haven’t. There may be a test, later.
March 18, 2013
“This is the end…
…beautiful friend, the end. No safety or surprise, the end.”
Following the shocking cliffhanger at the end of The Last Zombie: Before the After #5 (on sale in comic shops this week, or available online HERE) we come to the final story-arc in this long-running saga. I’ve said before that this title is called The Last Zombie for reasons other than just Ian’s condition. It’s called that because this is, without a doubt, my final word on zombies. After these final five issues, I’ll have said everything about them that I have to say. What started with The Rising and continued through City of the Dead, The Rising: Selected Scenes From the End of the World, 
The Rising: Deliverance, Dead Sea, Entombed, and Clickers vs. Zombies ends here. I really can’t see myself ever writing about zombies again (other than Ob and the Siqqusim’s mandatory involvement in the forthcoming Labyrinth series).
But I’m going out with a bang (just in case The Last Zombie: Before the After’s conclusion wasn’t enough of a bang for you). In these final five issues of the series, Frankie from The Rising joins the cast, Ian’s secret is finally revealed to his teammates, Planters is fully unleashed, there’s a gun-battle in the streets of post-apocalyptic Chicago, danger in the hills of post-apocalyptic Kentucky, and a reunion (or 
not) at the FEMA bunker in West Virginia.
You can pre-order The Last Zombie: The End (as well as purchase back issues and trade paperbacks of the entire series) RIGHT HERE.
I’m damn proud of this series. No, we never set Diamond’s sales charts on fire, but we placed in the Top 300 several times, and got some critical acclaim. What’s important to me is that Antarctic Press were pleased with the sales figures, readers enjoyed the story immensely, and I had an opportunity to deliver my last words on zombies. Thanks to all of you who have supported this series.
And stay tuned for High Plains Clickers, an original five-issue comic series (set in Clickers continuity) from the same team that brought you The Last Zombie, coming later this year. (And while we’re on the subject of comics, don’t forget to pre-order a copy of Masters of the Universe: The Origin of Hordak which you can get right here).
March 15, 2013
March 14, 2013
David B. Silva R.I.P.
David B. Silva passed away earlier this week at the age of 62. While I’m certain the details of his passing will be a matter of public record, out of respect for his loved ones, I’m not writing about them here. Instead, I think it’s more important to look back on his career and his contributions to our field.
David was best known as the founder and editor of Hellnotes and The Horror Show. Both publications had a seminal, long-lasting, influential impact on our generation of horror writers, readers, and editors. The Horror Show helped launch the careers of authors such as Bentley Little, Poppy Z. Brite, Brian Hodge, Gary Raisor, and many of the Splatterpunks. Hellnotes informed an entire industry, and was a huge influence on my own Jobs In Hell (and I was very honored to freelance for Hellnotes, as well). David was also a renowned short story writer and novelist. The winner of the Bram Stoker Award and the World Fantasy Award, his books included Come Thirteen, Through Shattered Glass, The Disappeared, All the Lonely People, and Walk the Sky (with Robert Swartwood).
I learned of his passing yesterday from Robert Swartwood (who has written a wonderful remembrance here). Later, while driving across a mountaintop in the snow, I was on the phone with Ellen Datlow, talking about David’s passing, and we both agreed that David’s influence on this genre and our field is monumental. So, perhaps it’s fitting to look at what others in the genre are saying about his passing:
BRIAN HODGE: “This is heartbreaking news. Dave was so immensely supportive that it’s no exaggeration to say he changed my life. He provided the garden in which so many of us sowed our first true seeds, and was the hub by which so many of us got connected to each other. After he’d published my first few stories in The Horror Show, I asked him if he wouldn’t mind giving me some feedback in general. Not on any particular work, but overall … how I could be doing better, etc. Several days later I got a multi-page letter in his enviably neat, precise handwriting. He’d written this by lantern light during a power blackout at his home in northern California.”
LAIRD BARRON: “I got a rejection from him when I was in my teens. Form letter with a personal note. Meant a lot.”
JEREMY LASSEN (Nightshade Books): “David Silva helped inspire a generation of writers & readers AND editors. I’m one of those folks he inspired. Much respect.”
BOB FREEMAN: “A master of the short story. Man, that guy will be missed.”
MARK SIEBER (The Horror Drive-In): “Oldsters like myself cherish the memory of Dave’s 1980’s magazine, The Horror Show. It was the coolest magazine of its day, and also a contender for the coolest mag of all time. The Horror Show ran fiction and nonfiction, and Dave’s mantra in it was “Better Weird Than Plastic”. Weird the magazine definitely was. No one in their right mind would have called it plastic.
JAMES BEACH (Dark Discoveries): “Plain and simple Dark Discoveries wouldn’t exist without Dave Silva and his Horror Show magazine.”
KEALAN PATRICK BURKE: “Silva was a gentleman, plain and simple, and a great help to me at many times during my writing career.”
March 13, 2013
KILL WHITEY
KILL WHITEY, a supernatural crime novel of mine, has been in print for some years. But now the English-language Kindle, Nook, and Kobo editions are getting a new face, courtesy of Cemetery Dance and Kealan Patrick Burke. That’s right. Author. Actor. And now Cover Designer. Kealan Patrick Burke = Renaissance Man
KILL WHITEY is also available in paperback from Deadite Press with an Alan M. Clark cover.
For German language readers, it is also available in hardcover, Kindle, and Nook.
March 12, 2013
Red Ribbon Show HIV Event
My good friend Jonathan Reitan has been living with HIV for six years this July. This is also his sixth year hosting Salem, Oregon’s annual Red Ribbon Show HIV/AIDS fundraiser. I’m proud of Jonathan, so I’m plugging the fundraiser here and asking you to help. This year, they hope to raise $10,000 for Our House of Portland, which provides healthcare, housing, etc. to low-income people living with HIV/AIDS, and the only 24 hour care facility for HIV/AIDS affected individuals in Oregon. You can donate online with your debit/credit card by visiting this Razoo fundraising campaign. Thanks for supporting this great cause.
March 11, 2013
MARCON Schedule
In two weeks (March 29 – 31), I’ll be signing in Columbus, Ohio as a Guest at MARCON. Other guests include F. Paul Wilson, Tim Waggoner, Lucy Snyder, Maurice Broaddus, and many more. For those of you in or near Columbus, or just attending the convention, here is my schedule:
FRIDAY:
7pm – Meet and Greet
8:30pm – Panel: ‘Women at the End of the World’
SATURDAY:
11:30am – Panel: ‘It’s a Wonderful Apocalypse’
1:00pm – Autograph Session
4:00pm – Panel: ‘What’s Up With Zombies’
SUNDAY:
11:30pm – Autograph Session
See you there!
March 6, 2013
March 5, 2013
The Keenedom Reborn (sort of), or, Social Networking Musings
Nobody uses websites these days. Everyone’s using social media instead — Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, etc. I know this because industry statistics say so, and also because all day long people ask me questions on Facebook and Twitter that they could have found the answer to in 2 seconds by simply coming here. Public figures, be they actors, musicians, politicians, or low-rent hillbilly horror writers like myself have no choice but to use social media these days.
The problem with social media is that it changes every five years or so. I’m sure we all remember when MySpace was the BIG THING. Now it’s Facebook. But most industry watchers agree that Facebook will soon go the way of MySpace (a prediction I happen to agree with).
So, with that in mind, I’ve been testing out a few of the newer social media sites and apps, and reevaluating the ones I use. I still like Twitter the best. I will remain active on Twitter until I die or until it shuts down. I stay active on Facebook, but I view Facebook as a necessary evil, and I’d be happy to see them go the way of MySpace. I have a Tumblr for the reactivated Jobs In Hell, but I don’t think I’d use it for more than that, because I really don’t care for Tumblr’s platform and set-up. My YouTube page doesn’t get updated nearly as much as I’d like, but that will change later this year. LibraryThing is a ghost town these days. I’ve been experimenting a little with Google+, but so far, it doesn’t hold my interest, nor does it seem to allow me to communicate broadly (something that a public figure requires of any social media).
None of these match, for me, The Keenedom at it’s height (although Twitter comes close). For new readers, The Keenedom was my old message board forum (and for you kids, message boards were things that once existed alongside other things like Netscape and Geocities and dial-up internet). The Keenedom Message Board forum was incredibly awesome and active, but it collapsed under it’s own weight for two reasons:
1. It had several thousand daily users, and it took a lot of time and effort to effectively moderate that many people.
2. I later opened it up to other authors, and gave them sub-forums. At first, I only featured tried and true friends (Bryan Smith, J.F. Gonzalez, Wrath James White, etc.) or veterans whom I admired (John Skipp, Ronald Kelly, Gene O’Neill, etc.) But then, at the request of those same several thousand users, we began adding more and more authors and, quite frankly, some of those authors were real shits — two-faced fucks who treated our members, our moderators, and the other authors abhorrently. Not all of them, mind you. In fact, most of them were cool. But there’s that old adage about a few bad apples.
So, I eventually said fuck that and pulled the plug on the whole thing.
Problem is, I miss that interaction. I miss those in-depth, enjoyable conversations. I can answer questions on Twitter, and I do, but I’m limited to 140 characters. It’s hard to have that type of group conversation on Facebook, because roughly 25% of Facebook users have the reading comprehension skills and social graces of a sand flea. Google+, in my experience, doesn’t seem to inspire those long discussions. And while Tumblr does have the Q&A feature, as I said before, I find Tumblr’s platform extremely wonky and a pain in the ass to use.
So, while musing over all this, I read an article that said teenagers are fleeing Facebook for Instagram and Branch. Yesterday, I explored Branch a little bit, and found I liked it. I like it a lot. So I’ve started a group there — a place where we can have the same types of conversations we used to have at The Keenedom, but the weight and time-consumption involved with moderation, and without the antics of fairy fucking princesses and halfwit trolls.
I’d like to invite all of you to join in the conversation. The rules are simple:
1. Don’t be an asshole.
2. Take 5 minutes to view the conversations that already exist before starting a new one (that way we avoid duplicate threads).
If you can follow those two simple rules, then come join us. Let’s talk. Been a while since we really did that.
March 4, 2013
HOLE IN THE WORLD
Begins. However, before it can truly begin, I need Jamie LaChance and Geoff Guthrie to email briankeene@live.com. My emails to you bounced.
